Apparent school retention rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander full-time students continue to increase with more students studying until Year 12. The apparent school retention rate from Year 7/8 to Year 12 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students was 49% in 2011, up from 36% in 2001.

This article presents the latest apparent school retention rates made available from the National Schools Statistics Collection.

In 2011, the apparent retention rates for full-time Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from Year 7/8 to Years 10 and 12 were 99% and 49% respectively.

Apparent retention rates to Year 10 and beyond for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have steadily increased since 2001. The apparent retention rate from the first year of secondary school to Year 10 rose from 86% in 2001 to 99% in 2011, while at the Year 12 level the increase was from 36% in 2001 to 49% in 2011 (see graphs).

APPARENT SCHOOL RETENTION RATES, full-time students by Indigenous status—2001–2011

(a) Other series includes non-Indigenous students and those whose Indigenous status was 'not stated'.Source: ABS, Schools, Australia, 2011 (cat. no. 4221.0).

While Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are still less likely than non-Indigenous students to complete their final years of schooling (49% compared with 81% in 2011), the gap between the two groups has narrowed. For Year 10, the difference between apparent retention rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous students decreased by 10 percentage points between 2001 and 2011. Differences in the Year 12 apparent retention rate decreased by 7 percentage points over the same period.